A RELIGIOUS studies teacher Madeleine Martin who seduced a boy less than half her age was jailed yesterday.

Madeleine Martin, 39, even had sex with the 15-year-old at her home while her teenage daughters were out.

They both had tattoos – his showed a heart with the name “Mad” in it while she had his name in Hebrew script on her lower back.

Yesterday Judge Jonathan Geake told Martin: “This is a very sad story. You used the boy for emotional support and comfort rather than the other way round.

“You lured him into intimacies which should never have happened. You are to blame, not him.

“Those of either sex in a position of trust must expect significant punishment when they abuse that trust – especially sexually.”

Prosecutor Jennifer Birch explained how Martin fell for the teenager after being appointed his mentor at a single-sex school. She told Manchester Crown Court that the boy was only 14 when he was put in Martin’s class in September last year but the pair became “increasingly close on a personal level”.

‘You lured him into intimacies that should never have happened’

Martin, of Knutsford, Cheshire, gave him gifts including a mobile phone and they started sending messages through the social networking internet site Facebook.

One of her messages, read: “Sorry, I cannot add you [as a Facebook friend] until you leave school.”

Miss Birch said: “The exchanges show that she knew that even indirect contact between them out of school was inappropriate.”

When the boy was put on school report for his behaviour, Martin was appointed his personal mentor which involved them spending more time together and placed her “in an important position of trust”.

At the beginning of the year, they were exchanging up to 10 messages a day and the following month their contact became “more intimate”.

Miss Birch said their relationship culminated in them having sex in a variety of places over a week.

On February 9 they drove to a retail park where they had sex before they were asked to leave by a security guard. The following day they had sex in a country park.

Martin changed her Facebook name to Sophie Flowers to hide their growing relationship and invited the boy to her home where they again had sex.

The relationship ended after a mutual decision and, when two months later the boy told his brothers what had happened, police were alerted.

Miss Birch said the boy, who was taunted at school because of the affair, had since left full-time education.

She said the “once vivacious” boy had “become lethargic and had lost his sparkle”.

Mark Fireman, defending, said Martin had acted “wholly and utterly out of character” while her marriage was breaking up and her sister was dying of cancer.

He added: “She has lost everything – her good name and her promising career. She bitterly regrets what she has done.”

Martin was jailed for 32 months after pleading guilty to 10 charges of sexual activity with a child.

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